"Well, okay. I suppose we could go. Did you want to stay for the whole week?"
"I'd kind of like to. Haven't really seen mum and dad much since Voldemort returned."
"Okay… well, go pack or whatever it is you do and we'll leave tonight."
"Okay."
Ginny headed off to her room and took out her old school trunk. Even though she and Harry weren't planning on returning to Hogwarts, she still liked to use her trunk for long trips. She began packing the essentials first and then she went on to pack miscellaneous items that she thought would come in handy. She was almost done when she remembered something else she wanted to take. It was a mirror. They had come in a set of two given to Harry by Sirius. After Sirius had been murdered, she took Sirius' mirror and she and Harry created four others and had given them to various people. Ginny knew for a fact that Harry had given both of his away, one to Albus Dumbledore, of course, and the other to Remus Lupin. She, personally, had given one to Ron and Hermione, but had not yet decided to whom she should give the other one. As Ginny was thinking about this, she heard a knock at the door.
"Ginny? …" Harry asked. "Are you ready to go yet?"
"Just about."
"Okay, well, are you done packing?"
"Yes." She said quickly stuffing the two spare mirrors in a pair of socks.
"Okay, well, why don't you let me go on ahead to the Burrow with the luggage and you can come along when you're ready."
"No, that's alright, I'm ready." She said as she opened the door dragging her trunk behind her. "Let's go."
"Do you want to Apparate or would you rather use the Floo?"
"You can apparate if you want to, but I'd rather not show up at my parent's house looking like I'm about to retch."
"Alright, apparition is easier for me, so you take the floo and I'll apparate and meet you there."
"Okay, just let me send Hermione a quick note telling her we're coming and to be watching where they walk so you don't run into each other when you apparate into the house."
Ginny took out her mirror and wrote with her wand:
Harry and I coming for visit.
Don't tell mum and dad.
Want it to be a surprise,
I'm using the floo.
Harry's apparating.
Be forewarned.
As she wrote each line it quickly disappeared. When she was done, an unseen person wrote:
OK.
"Okay, we're good to go Harry." Ginny said, heading toward the fireplace in the kitchen. "See you there."
And with that Harry took hold of his and Ginny's luggage and with a sharp POP, he apparated out of the house. Ginny stepped up to the fireplace and took a big handful of floo powder. She stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder down onto the wood, which burst into green, shimmering flames and said quite loudly and clearly,
"THE BURROW!"
~Harry's arrival at the Burrow~
Harry had barely taken one step forward, after he apparated into the Burrow, before his vision became completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair. - Hermione had thrown herself onto him in a hug that nearly knocked him flat.
*cough* "It's nice to see you too, Hermione."
"Oh, Harry, I've been so worried about you.
*ahem*
A distant cough could be heard from somewhere in the kitchen.
"Well, excuse me." Hermione said to the unseen owner of the cough. "…We've been so worried about you. Oh, and Ginny too, of course." Hermione continued to embrace him very tightly; it was as if she thought that, if she loosened her grip on Harry, he would simply vanish.
"We're alright, Hermione. We're both here now so we should make the most of this visit.
Hermione finally loosened her grip on Harry, but then said with a note of anxiety in her voice, "No, you're not."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Harry asked her with slight confusion.
"You said, "we're both here." …Ginny's not here yet."
"Oh is that all?" Harry asked with a nervous chuckle. " She probably just forgot something and had to go back or she overshot the fireplace accidentally. Nothing to worry about."
"See Hermione? I told you there was nothing to worry about."
Harry turned around in time to see his best friend walking into the room. Ron seemed to have grown several more inches during their two weeks apart, making him taller and more lanky looking than ever, though the long nose, bright red hair, and freckles were the same.
"Hey, mate."
"Hey, Ron. Had a good summer so far?"
"Yeah, it's been alright. Mum's been kind of a wreck lately."
"Ron!" Hermione said with a look of anger.
"What? It's true. …But to be fair everyone's in a right state panic."
"As you know Harry, there have been more and more disappearances. Then, what with the Bones and Vance murders, nobody really knows what to do anymore." Hermione said with fear in her voice.
"Mum's afraid one of us is next." Ron added gravely.
"Speaking of your mom…" Harry began, looking around. "Where is she?"
" Oh, her and dad have gone off to Diagon Alley to buy a few things. If Ginny shows up, you might want to tell her to hide because mum and dad are bound and determined on getting her to go back to Hogwarts this year."
"What? Why?"
"Thinks she'll be safer there, I guess."
"Well, Dumbledore is still there and he is the safest person to be around in these troubled times." Hermione chimed in.
"You sound like my mother."
"Well, I don't think your mum and dad have to worry about her. You know as well as I do that when we go to Hogwarts to assist Dumbledore that we're going to leave her at the school until we return." Harry replied.
"You don't know Ginny like I do mate, she's not going to go for that."
"Well, she's going to have to…"
"Did you hear that?" Hermione interrupted.
"AHHHHH…." Harry screamed.
"Harry!! What's wrong?" Hermione and Ron said together.
Harry had fallen to the floor in agonizing pain. His scar was burning again. His head felt fit to burst.
"It's Ginny," he gasped. "She's being attacked." He took a great gulp of air. "Somewhere in the heart of London."
Ron and Hermione helped Harry up and urged him to tell them what he had seen. As he told them, another surge of pain shot across his head.
"W-We have to hurry."
And with that being said, Harry, Ron, and Hermione apparated out of the house and off to London.